By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and Anne Bradley, Ernio Hernandez and Robert Viagas
04 Apr 2015

1921Sarah Bernhardt, who recently had one leg amputated, comes to London to play the title role in Louis Verneuil's Daniel at the Prince's Theatre. When she found a wooden leg unwieldy, she designed a litter chair for herself and was carried around the stage. Of course, she needed no help balancing herself on one leg for the curtain calls.

1944 Philanthropist Irene Lewisohn died today in New York City. She and her sister Alice Lewisohn built and endowed the Neighborhood Playhouse. With Aline Bernstein she founded the Museum of Costume Art on Fifth Avenue in 1937.

1949Herman Wouk's The Traitor receives just 67 performances at the 48th Street Theatre in New York. Walter Hampden and Jean Hagen are in the cast of this story about an American scientist who believes he can prevent war by passing atomic secrets to the Russians so the race for the bomb will be a stalemate. Jed Harris stages.

200142nd Street comes home to 42nd Street when previews begin for an opulent new Broadway revival of the backstage musical at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. The show would go on to win the 2001 Tony as Best Revival of a Musical.

2013Billy Porter stars as an indefatigable drag performer whose broken heel helps mend a broken wing for a foundering shoe-maker, played by Stark Sands, in the musical Kinky Boots, opening on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Based on the 2005 film of the same title, the musical has a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. The production will go on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.